ICC Note: More than 100 conservative leaders have spoken out in a letter directed toward President Trump, advocating for him to sign an executive order that would offer more protection to individuals and businesses with regards to their religious convictions. The letter highlights several cases in which businesses have been penalized for acting upon their convictions, such as an adoption agency that seeks to place children specifically with a married mother and father, or religious groups forced to offer contraceptives that violate their beliefs. This executive order has seen a mixed response, with supporters praising its defense of religious freedom and critics condemning its potential to legalize discrimination.
By Samuel Smith
03/01/2017 United States (Christian Post) – Over 100 conservative leaders have signed a letter urging President Donald Trump to sign an executive order on religious freedom that will protect the rights of businesses and individuals to act in accordance with their religious convictions on marriage and sexuality without fear of government backlash.
The letter was sent to Trump on Wednesday by members of the Council for National Policy, a coalition of leading social conservative activists headed by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
“You are doing something rare in American politics. You are fulfilling campaign promises. We thank you, especially for the steps you have already taken in your young administration to uphold our First Freedom, the freedom of religion,” a copy of the letter obtained by The Christian Post states. “We are writing to ask that you continue these efforts to defend religious freedom by issuing an executive order protecting the practical exercise of religious freedom.”
The letter comes as it has been reported that a draft religious freedom order has circulated through the Trump administration.
The White House initially contended that the reported draft order was just one of hundreds of draft orders making their rounds in the administration and that the administration didn’t have immediate plans to issue the order.
However, Ken Blackwell, the domestic policy chair of Trump’s transition team, told The Huffington Post this week that the religious freedom order is still in the works and “in the process of redrafting.”
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